Messages - Alchemy Prep

The market is going to be extraordinarily brutal this year. Hang in there, reach out to any/all contacts and push a little harder to make inroads from non-traditional angles. Many firms have cancelled summe rprograms but with your grades it will be worth mailing recruiters at the firms directly and pointing out your success.

People will see your outstanding work and I truly believe something will fall into place. Just don't rely solely on the OCI process to get into the firm setting.

Also, just a note, but many firms will actually ask for your undergrad transcripts when you apply for jobs (this even includes certain elite firms once you have been out of law school for years as well!).

I don't agree with the decision to do so, but it may play a role (albeit a small one) in your career development.

This year is going to be the toughest in a while. Bad grades, as mentioned above, will make it even harder. However, there are a few things to do if you are in the bottom half/thord of your class.

1) Make yourself stand out. If you want a firm job, make sure you have done your specific rsearch on the firm with which you are interviewing. Most students don't spend the time.

2) Ask insightful quesitons. For example, make sure you remember who you are speaking with. If interviwing with a partner, don't ask about work flow, associate relations, associate/partner relations or anythign like that. Ask about pland for growth in the future. Ask about how a recent partner/group acquisition will affect the firm moving forward. Asking insightful questions will make you stand out.

3) Take a risk. Like I tell people at lower ranked schools, only a small percentage of screening interviews will turn into call-backs. And for the most part, the call-backs will go to those with higher grades unless you take a chance and grab the interview by the horns. Direct it, show initiative and a presence, and ultimately, make sure the interviewer remembers you for something you say.

LORs will play a small role, if that. That said, I woudl try to divide up the two/three letters between academic and professional, therefore showing multiple attributes.

In particular, if the academic recommender can attest to your writing ability and the professional recommender can attest to a specific goal you have for law school i.e. criminal justice, environmental law, etc., etc., this can only help.

I agree in-part and disagree in-part with what has been written above.

Generally speaking, if you finish in the top half of your class at Hastings, your chances for obtaining a decent job will be substantially greater than coming from Santa Clara.

That said, in this market, jobs will be scarce regardless. If you are able to trim the debt load as much as posisble by choosing one school over the other, take that into slightly greater consideraiton than you might ordinarily.

My sincere apologies if I did not make myself clear. I was referring to NALP as a great tool for gaugeing the desirability of students from a particular law school vs. those from a competing law school, to a particular market. The presence of many firms at OCI implies a heightened level of desirability in that specific region (including, in large part, a heightened level of interest from non-OCI firms).

To follow-up on my earlier point (and it's amazing how much push-back law school folks have to my NALP suggestion every time I make it) in essence the point of going to NALP is to be able to get a bigger picture view than the US News rankings.

I don't think we can argue that a school that has, just by way of loose example, 60 or so firms (firms, not offfices of firms) coming to campus will provide a much great job market (in or out or OCI) than a school with 20 like McGeorge. My point was that looking at the US News rankings, where these two schools are not drastically far apart, you should not slip into the mistake of believing the job markets for graduates from each school are anywhere close to one another.

I generally don't suggest joint degrees unless you have money to burn. They are expensive and don't add much value.

On the legal end, most employers could care less if you have a joint JD/MBA let alone a JD/MD. But, if you have a specific target employer in mind that you are nearly certain you can/will get hired by, you may fit the exception.

Just note that while joint degrees sound glamorous, they may not help earnings power at all on the legal end. On the busines/medical end, perhaps, but the marginal difference likely makes the extra cost not worth it.